iCade support comes to more games, implementation only takes “hours”

The developer of Sideways Racing says adding iCade support to his game only …

We were told that more games would be released that support the iCade, ThinkGeek's iPad peripheral that turns your tablet into a small arcade machine, but we didn't know much about what it takes to support the physical controls. We do now: Marc Edwards is the director and lead designer of Sideways Racing, and he contacted us to talk about adding support for the peripheral.

According to Edwards, the process is simple, and the tools are easy to use. Let's take a look at the game in action.

"We loved the concept of the iCade and felt our controls would be well suited to a hardware joystick," Edwards told Ars. "It also seemed like an incredibly convenient excuse to order a few iCades. You know, for 'research.'"

He was afraid that the bluetooth controls would introduce issues with latency, but he describes the iCade as being very responsive in practice. He had already coded a button-based control mechanism, so porting that over to the iCade was a simple process. He used Stuart Carnie's unofficial SDK on Github for some of the project.

"If anyone's looking to add support, it should be possible in a matter of hours, assuming the game is already suitable for a hardware joystick," he explained.

Sideways Racing

There are some tradeoffs to using the iCade to control the game. On the plus side, "the tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great. There's no risk you'll hit the wrong button, which can be an issue for virtual controls," he said. "You're also able to see the entire screen, without your mitts obscuring important details—although we did our best to keep everything critical out of the bottom corners of the screen."

On the other hand, virtual controls allow for gradual steering, instead of the digital controls of the iCade. Edwards said he still hasn't been able to beat his best times with the iCade. Using the physical controls also kills portability, so this isn't something you'll be playing on your commute.

Still, he walked away a fan of the hardware and the controls. "I really hope more developers add iCade support to their games," he told Ars. We agree, and can't wait to try this out once the patch is released.

27 Reader Comments

While I'm not a fan of iPads, I'm completely willing to admit if I had one and an iCade setup here at my desk I'd probably accomplish nothing all day. I mean other than high scores and angry glances from coworkers that is.

<blockquote>There are some tradeoffs to using the iCade to control the game. "The tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great. There's no risk you'll hit the wrong button, which can be an issue for virtual controls," he said. "You're also able to see the entire screen, without your mitts obscuring important details—although we did our best to keep everything critical out of the bottom corners of the screen."</blockquote>Those are all positive things, aren't they? What are the tradeoffs?

<blockquote>There are some tradeoffs to using the iCade to control the game. "The tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great. There's no risk you'll hit the wrong button, which can be an issue for virtual controls," he said. "You're also able to see the entire screen, without your mitts obscuring important details—although we did our best to keep everything critical out of the bottom corners of the screen."</blockquote>Those are all positive things, aren't they? What are the tradeoffs?

Bluetooth, huh? Wonder what it would take to adapt that hardware to run under Windows.

I've been trying to get my Wii Fight Stick working under Windows for some time now. (Works fine under OSX or Linux. Windows has a program called GlovePIE which is pretty impressive but not quite what I'm looking for.)

The reason why it only takes a few hours to implement support for the iCade is simple: it's a keyboard. Each button press is just a letter. You can test it yourself. While paired with the iCade, just open up the notepad or something and start "typing" with your bluetooth keyboard.

The difference between it and a normal joystick is the only difficulty. It sends events (key presses) for ON and OFF. This is different from repeatedly sending ON messages that a traditional joystick would. I assume this helps avoid key repeat issues built-in to the OS and saves on battery.

I can't remember what it is right now, but for example pressing the stick left sends a letter J, while releasing the left press will send a Q.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the iCade being a keyboard causes other problems. Since you have a bluetooth keyboard paired with the system, the on screen keyboard doesn't show. So if a game needs to type or something you're out of luck.

I fail to understand the attraction of electronic games with few to no mechanical parts. The article even alludes to my point: "The tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great.". An 'actual joystick', zounds, amazing.

There is nothing I've seen in electronic games that compares to a simple pinball machine. You bump it with your hands, carefully synchronized with the ball hitting something and the ball goes faster! Get your hips into action and there is even more rock and roll (but not too much or the machine will shut you down with a Tilt). Physical interaction with the machine is where the excitement comes from.

I fail to understand the attraction of electronic games with few to no mechanical parts. The article even alludes to my point: "The tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great.". An 'actual joystick', zounds, amazing.

There is nothing I've seen in electronic games that compares to a simple pinball machine. You bump it with your hands, carefully synchronized with the ball hitting something and the ball goes faster! Get your hips into action and there is even more rock and roll (but not too much or the machine will shut you down with a Tilt). Physical interaction with the machine is where the excitement comes from.

Electronic games are sterile and boring.

Steve

While I do enjoy a good game of pinball now and again (Elvira, Earthquake, etc.) it's just a ball bouncing around on a table of lights and paintings with sound. BORING. Video games can (and do) transport you into another world (if you let them) just like books and movies -- or do you not like movies or books either since you don't get to physically interact with them?

Ripped from the face of the Pandora Linux handheld, the iControlPad. It supports communication in many BT modes, mousey, keyboardy, serial porty, and most important - iCade compatibility (er, coming soon). It also has a keyboard packet mode to sneak dual-stick data into iOS. It's almost playing by The Steve's rules, so we'll see if games can get away with supporting it.

I have an arcade pad for the xbox (for fighting games). I used it for NBA Jam, the newest one, I don't think my pad is right for it that or the controls are just too much now for the stick. But I can imagine the SNES version or Arcade version being awesome. I have played through the Xmen arcade game from XBLA numerous times using it, its fantastic. Oh, and TMNT Turtles in Time

There is nothing I've seen in electronic games that compares to a simple pinball machine. [...]Electronic games are sterile and boring.

I disagree. Specifically because while I own two pins (Bally Vector, and Fish Tales), I still do an insane amount of playing computer-based pins such as Pro Pinball: Timeshock (IMHO the best pinball game ever - I've seriously considered buying one of the in-a-pin-cab emulators just to play that game properly), and even on the iPad I play a bunch of pinball (Wild West Pinball and The Deep are both fantastic). Yes, the bang of the replay and smack of the ball against glass are unique, but I personally don't move my pin much and the sounds are emulated pretty well.

The reason why it only takes a few hours to implement support for the iCade is simple: it's a keyboard. Each button press is just a letter. You can test it yourself. While paired with the iCade, just open up the notepad or something and start "typing" with your bluetooth keyboard.

The difference between it and a normal joystick is the only difficulty. It sends events (key presses) for ON and OFF. This is different from repeatedly sending ON messages that a traditional joystick would. I assume this helps avoid key repeat issues built-in to the OS and saves on battery.

I can't remember what it is right now, but for example pressing the stick left sends a letter J, while releasing the left press will send a Q.

Huh. Irritating -- I was hoping for a minute there that, as a keyboard device, it would work with MAME with no modification.

WiseWeasel wrote:

I'm disappointed the iCade control stick isn't analog, or has at least two tiers of directional motion.

...how many arcade games do you know that feature analog joysticks?

As far as "two tiers", well, if by that you mean 8-direction I can see how it would be a problem if THAT'S not supported.

I fail to understand the attraction of electronic games with few to no mechanical parts. The article even alludes to my point: "The tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great.". An 'actual joystick', zounds, amazing.

There is nothing I've seen in electronic games that compares to a simple pinball machine. You bump it with your hands, carefully synchronized with the ball hitting something and the ball goes faster! Get your hips into action and there is even more rock and roll (but not too much or the machine will shut you down with a Tilt). Physical interaction with the machine is where the excitement comes from.

Electronic games are sterile and boring.

Steve

There are quite a few great iOS games that allow the player to interact directly with the objects on screen. That's something you can't do with mechanical games, and if done well, can really 'connect' you to the game.

It sounds like it's not your thing, but I much prefer the iOS way to interact with games (except for virtual joysticks, which I loathe).

While I'm not a fan of iPads, I'm completely willing to admit if I had one and an iCade setup here at my desk I'd probably accomplish nothing all day. I mean other than high scores and angry glances from coworkers that is.